The Babbel Blog

My name is Fideniz Ercan. I’m the Turkish language project manager at Babbel. As my name suggests, my parents are from Turkey. And you’re about to learn what Turkish names give away besides just origin.

Turkish names are found in all aspects of life. These are often everyday words such as love (Sevgi), wish (Dilek), luck (Uğur), hope (Ümit) and free (Özgür). This is an especially big plus for those learning Turkish. Because when they discover the meaning of a name, they can immediately add another word to their vocabulary.

We are launching a series of portraits of Babbel users – a snapshot of their lives, and the reasons why they are learning a new language. If you want to share your story with us, please leave us a comment. Today we introduce you to Andrea from Bologna. The 35-year-old is passionate about sports and languages. He has learned Spanish for the job of his dreams…in three weeks! And here he is, telling us how it was.

“Apple Watch is the most personal device we have ever created.” – Tim Cook

As announced on Apple.com, Babbel will be the first language learning app available on the Apple Watch. The Babbel Watch app enables users to learn new words in real situational contexts in a fun and effective way.

Little by little, women have secured professional roles that were previously unachievable. As important positions in government and society were once reserved for men, many languages never established a feminine form for certain job titles. How do languages adapt to this new reality? In the spirit of International Women’s Day, we at Babbel – the app for easy language learning – have taken a close look at the feminine form of professional job titles in several languages.

Of course we aren’t doing away with vocabulary and grammar entirely, but in Babbel’s first beginner’s course for Indonesian, you’ll also learn about the country and its people, and maybe even catch the bug to go there yourself!

Valentine’s Day: the day of love. Every day should be a day of love, but having one day dedicated to it makes it more special, with millions of people around the world declaring their love for each other. Despite the assumption that it’s actually a holiday made up by florists and chocolatiers to sell more flowers (Did you know that it’s the one day of the year when men buy more flowers than women?), Valentine’s Day traditions actually extend back hundred of years, originating with the Feast of Saint Valentine, the patron saint of happy marriage and love. Here are some interesting Valentine’s Day tales from countries around Europe…

We are launching a series of portraits of Babbel users – a snapshot of their lives, and the reasons why they are learning a new language. If you’d like to share your story, let us know in the comments. This is the month that we all celebrate Valentine’s day: a good reason to interview TJ, a 26-year-old software engineer from Albany, New York who is learning Norwegian for his significant other, Mari, from Norway.

We are launching a series of portraits of Babbel users – a snapshot of their lives, and the reasons why they are learning a new language. If you’d like to share your story, let us know in the comments. This month, we interviewed Michèle from Caen in France and André from Québec. Michèle and André do not know each other, yet they have a lot in common. Both are 65 and recent retirees passionate about traveling. They are learning Spanish regularly with Babbel to travel around the world the best they can.(more…)

The Christmas holidays have officially come and gone and many of us are now left with a combination of good memories (hopefully), nice presents (ideally) and clothes that are suddenly a little tighter than before (arrrgh). Nodding your head in silence too? Did you already make losing weight your New Year’s resolution? Could eating more healthily be your goal to follow after consuming endless amounts of roast turkey, ham and chocolate? Or are other priorities like relaxing more and feeling less stressed in 2015 more important? Let us know your personal New Year’s resolution in the comments section.